It’s that time again – time to share another income report.
So, I think November has gone pretty well. I see many people talking about how this Q4 isn’t what they expected. At first I wasn’t sure I agreed…. But then, if I look at the reports, I guess I don’t see a steep rise in November, (which I think is what people generally expect).
That said, when I look back at previous Q4’s for me personally, I haven’t had that steep rise either. It’s been quite up an down during the individual months.
For me, I think that’s because I don’t have a massive amount of books that are typically bought as gifts. I do have some, but they aren’t really my main sellers, (which sell all year around).
I guess I should also expect that November should be one of my highest months of the year?
But November right now is in fact still second highest! I made more back in May – but this was due to a high bulk order of one particular book.
Lowest sales day: $140
Highest sales day: $357
How Many Books Did I Publish In November?
Zero!
Yes, I had intended to publish more books in November, but I may hold off now until towards the end of the year – in order to have some new books published in January.
This month I’ve been concentrating on trying to work on other things…. Such as, trying to get started on YouTube, setting up gumroad and working on some Canva templates.
In addition, there seemed to be an increased number of people getting their accounts suspended. Plus of course, that surprising case of the Jade Summer account being closed, (well known for their colouring books on the platform).
I seem to remember an increase of that last year at Q4. So, I think this just added to my decision to hold off uploading new things right now.
One issue is, many of the Amazon warnings come via an automated system. Something in the system flags up and if you aren’t sure what to do in response, it can be extremely hard to get a straight answer from a real person.
I’ve had emails myself over the last couple of years and every single time, they’ve ended up telling me it’s an error on their part.
Even in that case though, the warning emails from amazon will send automatically again and again for those books if you try and edit them in the future.
In my case, it means that I cannot edit those books without one of those messages being sent and so, I have simply stopped editing those particular books and moved on.
If you ever do find yourself in that situation and Amazon says they’ve made a mistake, I would still recommend leaving those books alone and not editing them. Unless you want to go around in circles speaking to Amazon customer service.
All this highlights how tenuous it can be relying on a single platform like this. It’s just worth keeping that in mind and work on other sources of income too.
How Much Did I Spend On Ads?
My Ads were going really well this month, until around the last week when my spend went through the roof.
As a result, my ACOS went up as well and made both USA and UK Ads slightly unprofitable.
Canada still remained profitable and the Ad spend did not go up as much on this platform.
USA spend: $93.66, (ACOS 28.51)
UK spend: £115.86, (ACOS 28). $154.31 in US dollars.
Canada spend: $115.86, (ACOS 21). $99.85 in US dollars.
Total Spend In US Dollars: $347.82
+ 20% VAT – So, around $417
How Much Did I spend On Tools?
I didn’t purchase any additional tools for KDP – so, all my expenses are basically the same as last month aside from that.
I will copy & paste those here, although there will be minor differences in cost, depending on the exchange rate month to month.
Canva – Where I create most of my interiors and covers.
Helium 10 – I’m just using the Cerebro tool at the moment, which I’ve found useful for keyword research and makes the cost a lot cheaper each month.
Creative Fabrica: My go-to source of graphics with a print on demand license and great fonts.
Bookbolt – keyword research/puzzlewiz etc (my coupon code: natniches for 20% off)
Vecteezy – various graphics
You can find a full list of my tools here.
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Total – £72.51 / $97.14
Have I Noticed Any Different Books Selling?
YES!
Especially in the last couple of days. All of a sudden, several books that had not sold a single copy before, have sold!
It’s great when this happens, as sometimes it will lead to reviews and it brings new life to your books that had never previously made sales.
I’m also noticing a bunch more of my notebooks are selling – which are typically aimed at the gift market.
What really made me laugh, is I noticed a couple of books sold recently that I originally published on my first month or two on KDP and I don’t think had ever sold before…. even last Q4!
It’s weird how these things happen, you’d think those books would be at the bottom of the amazon algorithm somewhere and yet somebody found them.
It just goes to show the sheer volume of people that must be searching on Amazon this time of year.
I personally have only got ONE single Christmas present bought on my list so far…. So, if many people are like me, I’m sure there will be plenty of last minute sales coming this December.
What About Shipping Delays?
Last year, there were quite long shipping times on low content books – I think towards mid December it went up to a week sometimes.
In my case, I think it did effect my sales – as traditionally published books didn’t have this wait time and so, people in more of a hurry would probably choose books with less of a wait.
Already I’m seeing my books with a 5 day wait time in the USA – whereas in the UK, it’s only two days wait right now.
How Is Q4 Going For You?
What do you think? Is Q4 quieter this year for you? Or are you having amazing sales this year? Let me know in the comments!
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